Episode 6 Secret Land

In the ancient city of Beijing, you can taste authentic Turkish food within a few steps. Authentic paella, or authentic French dinner. People meet foods from all over the world, and their tastes are more and more similar to those of the world. However, in the mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, seas, grasslands and deserts of China, there are always undiscovered foods, which we need to discover and find.

In early winter in Dalinor, Inner Mongolia, the temperature dropped to MINUS 30 degrees Celsius. Today's action is very important. Choose a place to break the ice in the middle of the lake. The Mongolian word "Dalinor" means "a lake like the sea". This is the first time to cast a net this year. An 800-meter-long net has to sneak under the ice for six hours. Yarrow vachelli, a fish that is very picky about the environment, grows in a semi-soda alkali lake, which is locally called "Chinese fish". Fish eggs in China grow slowly, weighing only 200g in 4 years. 500 grams of Chinese roe is the best in the lake, and there are nearly 30 thousand Jin of fresh fish in the first net. In order to maintain the number of fish in the lake, the fishermen agreed that the annual winter catch should not exceed 300 thousand kilograms. Fresh China fish, after steaming, can keep its original flavor to the maximum extent. Hot and sour, in the cold grassland in the middle of winter, appetizing and sobering up. Frying is not complicated. Just add a little salt and simmer for three to five minutes, and the fresh fish will be cooked with a burnt smell. The practice of farmhouse music is simpler, the firewood is stewed in hot pot, which is rich and delicious, and the fishermen enjoy a bumper harvest, which is the reward of hard work more than half a year ago. In May, Darinol just woke up, and the water temperature of Danshui River reached 8 degrees Celsius. China's fish will set off from the mouth of Lake Darinor and go upstream along the river, and fishermen are also very busy. Feng Junjie and his friends planted bamboo stakes in the upper reaches of the river, and covered them with the stems of Leymus chinensis. Leymus chinensis, the first plant to perceive spring in Darinol. Dozens of kilometers of waterways are full of dangers. Seagulls wait early and have a feast. Chinese fish can help them replenish energy, complete migration and finally reach Siberia. Within 1 week of concentrated migration, more than 400,000 fish will become food for birds. They have not eaten for a whole winter, and their future is uncertain in the countercurrent. Of the four rivers leading to Darinol, Feng Junjie will lay 2000 meters of straw. Countercurrent makes it more and more difficult for China fish to move forward, but it can stimulate their gonads to develop and mature, and accelerate the spawning of fish eggs. This is a competition of survival of the fittest, and only the strongest fish can reach the spawning ground. Chinese fish eggs are within reach, but fishermen can't fish at this time. At night, the natural enemies recede and the Chinese fish speed up. They must find a suitable delivery room, which is not easy in rivers with degraded ecology and few aquatic plants. Leymus chinensis is a warm maternity bed. Without them, fish eggs will lose their chances of survival because of lack of attachment. After the breeding is completed, the Chinese fish will return to the Great Lakes. 10 days later, the hatched fish will swim back to Darinol like their parents. In this mysterious land of grassland, people and fish work together to find a way to maintain a balanced existence.

4000 kilometers to the south, Beihai, the southernmost tip of Chinese mainland coastline. People don't know that a small creature contemporary with dinosaurs is gathering at the seaside less than 100 km away from them. The sand crabs began to enjoy dinner, and just at the low tide, they set up their own secret kingdom on the beach. Zhou once again set foot on the familiar hometown path. Zhou, a college student in Sichuan, goes back to her family every summer vacation. The sand crab is agile, with a body length of only about 2 cm, but its speed can reach 1.6 m per second. The sand crab runs fast, and mother's hands are faster. Beihai, one of the original ports of China's Maritime Silk Road, has a wonderful coexistence of Guangdong, Guangxi and Southeast Asian styles in food. The sand crab juice distinguishes it from any other place. After beginning of autumn, the low tide night is a good time to catch sand crabs. Sand crabs get nutrients by absorbing algae in seawater and sand. Simple and accessible recipes have allowed them to multiply on the earth for hundreds of millions of years. The food chain is always linked. On the beach, the competition between people and sand crabs never stops. The practice of crab juice is not complicated. Wash it repeatedly, carefully remove the internal organs, pestle it with a pottery mortar, add salt and a little white wine. The sand crab with almost no meat was imagined as a magical seasoning. Fresh crab juice has a strong smell, which is caused by the oxidation of fish oil. To get the best taste, fermentation is an important link. Proteases produced by microorganisms hydrolyze protein in Eriocheir sinensis to obtain small peptides and free amino acids. After 1 month, the crab juice was mellow and delicious, with the best taste. Cowpea is the most common collocation of crab juice. After stewing on medium fire for 10 minutes, the beans jumped out of the wild for no reason, which made people have an appetite. The iconic white-cut chicken in Cantonese cuisine is cooked with slow fire until it is 89% mature. It is generally believed that scallion sauce is suitable for it, but in the eyes of Beihai people, sand crab juice is the perfect match for white-cut chicken. A small dish of sand crab juice adds a little flavor to the life of fishermen, which is a miracle brewed in the secret realm for hundreds of millions of years.

Our ancestors were good at finding flavors in nature to decorate their food. During the flood season, there was a Wang Yang on the Le River in the morgue, but a plant was in full bloom. The Hijiler family has 9,000 mu of grassland and 4,000 sheep. Today, the sheep will be driven home early. She is waiting for a reunion. Cousin Zebuli came from 100 km away. The grassland is vast and sparsely populated, and people seldom meet each other. Wild chives create an opportunity for them to get together once a year. The sunny slope with gentle humidity is most suitable for the growth of wild leek. Every year, wild leek only blooms for one week, but herders have a traditional way to store its fragrance and enjoy it for one year. There are many sulfur compounds in leek flowers, which are the source of spicy taste. Crushing, destroying leek flower cells and gradually releasing sulfur-containing compounds. The monotonous natural environment brewed the most abundant condiment on the grassland-wild leek sauce. Herdsmen began to store forage for the winter. Summer grazing is coming to an end, and before the transition, herders hold parties as usual. Meat is the main character of grassland ethnic recipes, and nomadic tradition breeds rough cooking. Authentic hand-grabbed meat is cooked without any seasoning and can be cooked in 40 minutes. If there is no leek sauce, even the delicious meat will lose its color. Sodium ions in leek sauce can activate salt-free mutton, and sulfur-containing compounds form a nervous slight burning sensation in the mouth, further enhancing the meat taste. At the same time, leek sauce also provides natural vitamins to help digest meat. Mutton and leek sauce, an ancient grassland diet, has not changed even on the meat washing table in Beijing. Although there are more than a dozen spices, the status of chives is always hard to shake.

Perhaps it is the high-quality protein rich in diet that makes the grassland people's physique stronger. Nomads turned to settle down, but Nadam made them fierce again. The Great Wall, which stretches for 5,000 kilometers, was once the dividing line between nomadic people and farming people. The tradition of eating mutton has a long history in the north and west of the Great Wall. This is the desert farthest from the ocean on earth, the dry pole of China, Taklimakan. In the nearest village to the desert, Yamanbaike Village, Wu Buli Kasmu is preparing a desert feast. Mutton tripe is a natural cooker. The mutton soaked in seasoning will not leak and has enough elasticity. It is not uncommon to wrap food in the stomach of animals for cooking, but the practice here is the most unique. Charcoal fire is the key to cooking in the desert. Under the charcoal fire, the temperature in the sand exceeds 180 degrees Celsius. This is the most natural oven, which makes the food heated evenly. The change of mutton in the baking process can't be observed visually, and it depends entirely on experience. Four hours later, the charcoal fire released the delicious flavor of mutton and scorched the road. The fat of the fat meat has been crispy by fire, the lean meat is elastic, fat and thin, and the meat is tender and juicy. About 2 million years ago, humans learned to roast raw meat with fire. Scientists believe that cooked food has made us what we are today.

The Yellow River rushed out of Helan Mountain and shaped the Ningxia Plain. Almost all gourmets in China think that mutton here has the best texture. No salt is the key to stew. As a strong electrolyte, salt will destroy the cell membrane of mutton, make the water in the meat seep out, lose elasticity and make the taste old. After nearly 2 hours of simmering, the muscle fibers become soft and full of water, and the mutton is not greasy and delicious. Salt will appear before serving, which not only increases the taste without affecting the taste of cooked meat, but also doubles the freshness. "Fish" and "sheep" constitute the word "fresh" in Chinese characters, which is the highest evaluation of taste by China people. There is a tradition of cooking mutton in most parts of China, and the difference of mutton flavor is also caused by soil and water, and cooking in the north is the simplest. This just-right presentation of mutton freshness also implies their confidence in ingredients. Food depends on the support of the environment. People's demand once made the number of sheep in Ningxia mountainous area far exceed the regeneration ability of vegetation, and the rapidly desertified surface became extremely fragile. The approaching desert makes people find a new balance between food and environment. The sound of sheep is as punctual as a clock, and a busy day begins with foraging. Ma Ashe and her husband feed more than 2,000 sheep and work 12 hours a day. Silage is the staple food of sheep here. Corn stalk and alfalfa are crushed and fermented to make silage, which is close to the nutritional components of natural pasture to the maximum extent. Ningxia is located at the edge of the sandstorm line in China. In order to protect the ecology, large-scale grazing has been banned. In order to maintain the flavor of mutton, people have to devote their thoughts and labor to reproduce a feeding environment closest to nature. Ma Ashe, a Hui girl, was once a top student in an Arabic school. Six years ago, she met Yang Guowei and married the arid and barren Haiyuan. Now she is the mother of two children. In order to build a dream home, they came to the farm four months ago. Although they work hard, they can guarantee an income of more than 40 thousand yuan a year. Hard work every day brings delicious mutton to people, but his life is extremely simple. "Potato Wipe" is children's favorite. It was the delicious food invented by the mountain people that made one of the simplest ingredients come alive and fragrant.

China people are good at creating delicious food in plain life, and delicious food is also a spiritual comfort for people to overcome difficulties, especially in extreme environment. The average annual rainfall in the southern margin of Taklimakan is only 15.6 mm, which belongs to a typical continental desert climate. Wheat is more adaptable to the ecological environment than any other grass. Just like the desert residents here, they can always gain survival energy under extreme conditions. The erosion of villages and land by quicksand has never stopped, but it has lasted for generations. Flour should be fermented first and then kneaded into dough. Air holes can prevent swelling and deformation during baking, and chopped onions and sesame seeds make the fragrance more attractive. Naan has existed in human diet for more than 2000 years. The cellar wall has reached 180℃, and the sugar in the flour is dehydrated and degraded at high temperature, showing caramel color and strong wheat flavor. It takes only 10 minutes from birth to maturity, but the tradition spans thousands of years. In the desert, it is delicious, corrosion-resistant, not easy to dry, and will not deteriorate after being stored for several months. It is a model that people use food to cope with extreme environment.

Whether it is arid and barren land or unfathomable sea, once injected with human wisdom, it can become the secret realm of food. In the Pearl River Estuary, 4000 kilometers away from the desert, the typhoon is coming, and Zhang Beigen and his wife are reluctant to part. The expected harvest has not yet appeared. Grouper, hiding in the crevice of the reef below 10 meters, can detect any subtle movement underwater with only a little fishing line, but only small fish take the bait. Grouper is difficult to catch with a net, so it can only be caught by hand. Its meat is tender and firm, and it is considered as one of the most delicious marine fish. China has more than 5,000 islands and many unknown maritime secrets. Wanshan Island covers an area of 8 square kilometers, with only 100 households. Due to its proximity to the Pearl River Estuary, where salty and fresh water meet, the nearby aquatic products are extremely rich. Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Beigen have lived here since childhood and know the mystery of seafood flavor. Fresh fish and shrimp release inosinate during drying, and fish and shrimp meat is rich in glutamic acid. After drying and dehydration, the two meet wonderfully and produce a strong umami flavor. This freshness is the origin of vegetarian and chicken essence. Without complicated cooking, steaming 10 minutes can completely awaken their concentrated sweetness. At the beginning of the typhoon, Zhang Beigen and his wife are going to try their luck in the farther waters. Judging the hiding place of grouper from the staggered rocks, no one on Wanshan Island knows the secret better than Zhang Beigen. In the morning when the tide is not high, groupers will come out to feed. With this hook, Zhang Beigen once caught a grouper weighing 30 kilograms. The wind and waves are getting stronger, and there seems to be no gain today. This is the first stone caught this year. Although it is less than 5 kg, it indicates a good start. In the past, fishing was the livelihood of a family. Now, going to sea is a pleasure for the couple. The child has settled in the city and wants to take his parents to his side. Zhang Beigen doesn't want to be a burden to children, let alone give up this free sea secret.

Sticking to the secret realm, there is this little life, termites, which appeared on the earth 250 million years ago, unaware that their labor has cultivated unique delicacies for mankind. Awa Mountain crosses the border between China and Myanmar, and the Tropic of Cancer crosses the virgin monsoon forest. For Li and her aunt, July is the busiest season, and the tea garden supports their livelihood for a year. There is a prehistoric world hidden under the rotten wood, which is a branch of Macroterminae. Worker ants devour leaves and weeds and excrete them to form semi-digested forage. They planted a fungus spore in the forage to ferment it and make it crisp and delicious. Termites mastered food fermentation technology 32 million years earlier than humans. Spores gradually form hyphae with a diameter of only a few microns, and suitable temperature and humidity make them grow into stout fruiting bodies. Chicken termites are the best delicacies for termite breeding. Some gourmets believe that chicken fir is unique among edible fungi because it has an animal-like fat besides being fresh, sweet, soft and slippery. Chicken fir contains aspartic acid and glutamic acid. Cooking with salt can form the most natural flavor, which is the origin of the delicious taste of chicken fir. Behind the tea garden is a dense virgin forest. Axiu still remembers the growing place of more than 300 termites. The same ant nest produces bacteria once a year, and she belongs to the first person to see it. This is the most prosperous season, but there is no chicken fir in the forest. Xiaoqi is depressed, but her aunt is not worried. As the most familiar person in the village, she knew that hope was still there. Chicken fir, which has just been pushed out of the ground and the umbrella cover has not been opened, tastes the most touching. In the secret world, people carefully follow the laws of nature and carefully cover them up to prevent them from being discovered by others, also to protect the ant nest. Nothing seems to have happened in the tropical rain forest on the border between China and Myanmar.

China has a long border with 14 countries, and countless people walk on the edge of the border, looking for delicious food in the secret territory. Jiang and his wife Shen are hiking on Changbai Mountain, which is located on the border between China and North Korea. They are going to collect an ancient plant. 15km mountain road is a challenge for people in their 70s. It is these newly sprouted bracken that the old man is looking for. 65 million years ago, bracken was once the staple food of dinosaurs. Pteridium aquilinum is widely distributed in China, but no matter what you do, there will be a lingering bitterness. The so-called "freshness" in China's food culture is often accompanied by this sobering pleasure. Jianshui, Yunnan, 4000 kilometers away, the cooking of bracken is so simple that it only needs to be blanched with water, accompanied by the unique spicy taste of Yunnan. In half a year, bracken is the main vegetable of the mountain people. The suitable time for collecting bracken in Changbai Mountain area is no more than 30 days. When Jiang was young, he had to carry 20 Jin of bracken every time when he went up the mountain alone. Protopterin contained in bracken is harmful to human health, and blanching can remove some harmful components. Knead and squeeze water, and at the same time break the crude fiber in the epidermis, so that bracken tastes crisp and tough. The complicated processing method is the contribution of the secret Koreans to the collection of human recipes, and the dehydrated bracken is easy to be preserved for a long time. In order to keep food delicious, human beings have been looking for the most effective storage method. The Washan people in the secret world have found the secret to keep the chicken fir delicious. Axiu wants to cook the chicken fir oil while the fungus is fresh, heat the chicken fir to release water, and then bake it with slow fire. Vegetable oil is the key to keep the flavor. With the continuous increase of oil temperature, the umami flavor of chicken fir migrates to hot oil. After 3 hours, the chicken fir oil is thick and beautiful, and can be stored for 2 years after natural cooling. The barrier of space guards the secret realm, and the secret realm also guards the wonderful food. Jiang's descendants are full, but no one stays with him. Every year, old people bring dried bracken to distant children. Food is like a faithful messenger, conveying the information of affection and affection.

Not all secrets are hidden in virgin land, bustling cities and unknown secrets. Open-air oil rolling, deep-stove iron pots, stir-frying and fragrant street dishes, people who come back late regard this place as a midnight food store. Under the bustling skyscrapers in Central, there are food stalls that are about to disappear. A Chang's food stall has been open in Sham Shui Po for 20 years. With the rapid development of the city, food stalls were gradually banned and moved into roadside shops. Since my parents' generation, Chang's family has been working in wonton noodles for 60 years. Many people who come to the store for dinner are old customers for decades. Shrimp wonton, handmade bamboo noodles, soft and glutinous beef tendon, fresh and tender shrimp, the thick flavor deeply entered the mottled years of this community, and the tenacious taste memory made people follow all the way. Father Liu Tingsen is 80 years old and sits in front of the store on time every night, which is the most enjoyable time for the elderly. Use fresh duck eggs for dough without adding a drop of water to ensure smooth and elastic noodles. After boosting and beating, bamboo has moderate hardness and toughness. It was 2 am when the last guests were sent away, and the restaurant closed, ending a busy day in the city. Sixty years ago, there were more than 800 food stalls in Hong Kong, but now there are only 28. The disappearing food stalls have recorded the changes of the city and become the collective memory of Hong Kong people's food secrets.

Wuzhong, Ma Ashe and her husband in Ningxia calculate the time to go home every day, and life here has just begun. In Hotan, Xinjiang, Wu Buli Kasmu will take this year's new wheat back to the barn. Hulunbeier grassland, Buli's leek sauce can be eaten by the whole family next spring. The formation of the global village is accelerating, and no one can stop it. However, as long as we are obsessed with and looking forward to a certain smell, then this smell and the life belief that is inseparable from it will certainly protect the unrepeatable tribe and a fascinating secret.